I "inherited" these from another exed teacher, and had similar difficulties with surface not being reusable. With all our budget cuts, I won't be able to replace the product.

Bottom LineNo, I would not recommend this to a friend

Merchant response: We are so sorry to hear about the problems you are having with the Talk Boards. Unfortunately, it seems like you received our Talk Boards from our first production run where we had problems with the write & wipe surface, but we have corrected this issue. We would love to send you a replacement. Can you please send us your mailing address at info@learningresources.com? Thank you!

I used these talk boards in a center for my kindergartners. It was very simple to operate, so I had them independently use them to practice writing and reading our sight words. However, after one day (about an hour) of use, one of the boards stopped working. After 5 days of use, the surfaces of the other two were destroyed because the material used for the write and wipe surface soaked up the dry erase marker, so the surface became bubbled. I did not try wet erase marker because they are more of a pain to use, but it may have been an alternative to dry erase. The boards are also very flimsy and easily broken. Also, once the batteries die, the product is unable to record. After complaining to Learning Resources, they sent me a new set at no charge. I chose to rip apart one of the old boards to see how it was designed. I then cut up two pieces of dry erase board from [@] and attached them to the surface of the talk board to make it sturdy and erasable. I also cut holes in the dry erase board to allow for the play and record buttons, speaker, and mic. I also put the record and play buttons on the same side. Inside, you will find that there are batteries that you can replace, so I screwed the board together, so I could unscrew it later to replace batteries. I tried the reformed board with my kindergartners this week and they love it! They especially enjoy being able to erase the board! Do not buy this product unless you plan to do some modifying or plan on using something other than dry erase markers.

Bottom LineNo, I would not recommend this to a friend

Merchant response: Thank you for notifying us of the problem you experienced with our Talk Boards. In fact, based on your feedback, we made changes to the product and are shipping you a new set! Please accept our apology for any inconvenience and disappointment.